Witwatersrand Gold - 100 years was published in 1986 on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand,(1886) . The book is edited by Dr E S A Antrobus. Gold was discovered on the farm Langlaagte by George Harrision in 1886 and changes thereafter were rapid. These mining discoveries of gold embedded in quartzite in microscope grains in the reefs of banket gave rise to the boomging city of Johannesburg, today the economic hub of Africa. The Witwatersrand or Reef towns centred on the line of gold mines to East and West stretched the pattern of settlement around a golden arc., and mines were developed progressively through the decades with the Orange Free State Mines ( Welkom) coming into production after the second World War. Johannesburg was a new new raw mining town that grew into a giant metropolis, but it is the only city not built on a river or port and solving its water supply problems was part of the engineering triumph.. Today Johannesburg is located in Gauteng Province - "the place of gold " and it is still the economic heartland of the country despite the viccitudes of mining. economics.

The discovery of gold was of huge import and catapulted South Africa into the modern economy with the resultant rapid economic growth and development of the South African economy based upon gold and other metals and minerals. The mining revolution drew immigrants from all over Africa and indeed the world., skilled and unskilled came to seek their fortunes in the city of gold. Geologists and mining engineers were in great demand as these were the men who were needed to prospect, explore and discover where the gold reserves were. They were tasked with the development of the deep levels mines , sinking shafts and working out the direction of the reefs and getting the miners down into the bowels of the earth in powerful skips. These scientists had to push the boundaries of technology to bring the most innovative mining and engineering techniques and breakthroughs to South Africa. They were the men who provided the strategy and organizational skills to make the modern mining industry a reality. The chemical industry was crucial and a dynamite factory using the Nobel discoveries was established at nearby Modderfontein.

This book was published by the Geology Society of South Africa and presents the geological perspective on the discovery and development of the Witwatersrand gold fields. It is very much a commorative book and was a limited edition of 2000 copies. 750 copies were bound in skivertex red as a deluxe edition and numbered 1 to 750 ( my copy is number 434) . This book published now some 26 years ago has very collectable. and is keenly sought by collectors of books on mining and Johannesburg history. It is an elaborate and expensive publication and is a beautiful book. It is dense with technical information about geology, the practicalities of mine development and the technical challenges of mining.

It has some reproduction of magnificent old maps, coloured and older black and white photogtraphic reproductions and folded in plates of the gold fields, some fascinating illustrations, plus numerous diagrams and statistical tables. The frontis is an an attractive aerial photograph of Johannesburg in 1974. It marks and reflects a moment in time that was worthy of commemmoration. There are distinct chapters contributed by different authors (who are geologists and not historians) on the different mining regions of the Witwatersrand and the Orange Free state gold mines. Thus the book surveys the evolution of mining in the Central Rand, the West Rand, the East Rand, the South Rand, the Klerksdorp goldfields, the West Wits Line, the Welkom Goldfields and the Evander goldfields . The golden arc of the many dozens of mines extended over a few hundred kilometres determined the shape and future of the South African economy over a century, important as an employer of labour, a absorber and generator of capital; the backward and forward linkages in the economy were numerous. Gold was not consumed within South Africa to any great extent but became the primary mineral export and so yielded the foreign exchange which could then fund imports of all commodities and massive machinery imports required to make the economy develop and expand.

The difficulty of a book of this type is that it is written by technical experts who are so engrossed in the complex
subject matter of how to go about extracting gold from low level grades of ores in some of the deepest mines in the world, that there is no space, time or interest in reflecting on the economics or organizational structure of mining and the social and political impact on diverse peoples. The point about South African gold mining is that it combined great sophistication in engineering and intense capital investment with the exploitation of raw unsophisticated manual labour , migrant men who were recruited from the far rural reaches of Africa to contribute their muscles and physical brawn. South African gold mining was both labour and capital intensive. There was no space for the individual
small mining pioneers, the old timer with his pick, shovel, pack mule and gold pan. From the earliest years gold mining was organized on a corporate basis that combined competition and collaboration through the group system of mining companies and the functioning of the Chamber of Mines. The companies competed in areas such as geological exploration, land purchases and initial development work, but cooperated in labour recruitment, scientific research and health issues ( Silicosis was the big scourge which cut the livespans of miners until researched and managed, though the disease was never eradicated. ) What was pecuiliar about gold was that its primary purpose was the enduring use of gold a precious metal to support currencies and governments around the world. It was always a store of value with great stability to its price, whether hoarded at Fort Knox or in the dowries of Indian brides. The product was always in international demand.

For many decades the world monetary system was based upon the gold standard and a fixed price for gold , a price determined not where the gold was mined or dependent on actual gold mining costs but rather in London, New York or Zurich. The dominant force was the Bank of England . The mining companies succeeded because they had this extraordinary opportunity to sell their product at a fixed price and in unlimited quanities . Their profits depended on ensuring that their production costs remained below the world price for gold per fine ounce. The normal rules of demand and supply were rather distorted through eight decades. Hence that focus on sophisticated cost efficient scientific research and its application and on the equally efficient but inhumane labour recruitment system. After 1970s a more fluid market situation evolved and this meant that the mining houses had to become ever more nimble and market responsive as the price of gold could now fall as well as rise. After 1970 as the world became an inflationary place, labour costs rose as income rose and then from the 1980s the focus was on cutting labour needs and becoming ever more scientific in mining gold when prices fell.

None of this changed reality and more recent challenges are discussed in this book. Thus the context and the economic framework of the gold mining industry is well buried in all of the superb technical detail and deep knowledge presented in this book. The price of gold is almost tangential to the work of the geologist , who concentrates on the job at hand. It becomes a book to be mined for information about meaning and purpose. You need to read to look for the gold nuggets of analysis about economics.

An equally fascinating story is what has happened to gold mining and the great companies in the very turbulent economic and political times of transformation and liberation, The politics and economics of gold mining is an equally gripping story and the question of who actually owns the rights to mining licenses and the wealth beneath the surface is still hotly debated. Nationalising the mines of South Africa is promoted as an easy solution to poverty by the populist firebrands on political platforms speaking to the poor and ill educated. It is all so much more complex and this book reveals only one aspect of that complexity. Today one reads about old mine shafts in places such as Springs being taken over by illegal independent miners who risk their lives and defy the companies to get at worked out seams in search of the fgold bearing ores . The pale yellow fine dust of the tailings mountains came to define the landscape of the city on the highveld and now they are being reworked by new companies in search of other minerals such as uranium and again the last of the grams of gold

Times are speedily changing in the mining industry but this book reflects on the first 100 years of the technicalities of the creation of a great industry and how South Africa became a leading player in gold mining. The book is a tribute to the geologists and the mining men who shaped the industry and made the modern South African economy. ( )